Canvas paints? Createx Wicked?

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DreadfulEpiphany

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I'm a beginner mostly looking to be airbrushing on canvas. Does anyone have any preferences for paint brands on canvas?

I've been looking at the Createx Wicked sets and they seem to get good reviews. But what's the difference between the Wicked and the standard Createx? Also, are the reducers necessary or just optional?
 
Com-art are good for canvas, they can be used straight from the bottle with no reducing and produce very little tip dry.

Wicked colours are good for almost any surfaces and do work well on canvas, the wicked paint will need to be reduced.


At the end of the day it is all down to personal preference, each person will have thier own ideas about the best paint for the job.
 
As Darren state Com-art is a good canvas paint, But as for tip dry??? That is all I got no matter what color I was spraying. (Eclipse CS .35 @ 20-35PSI)
Wicked , Yes you have to reduce it but that also to me is an advantage due to I can make it more transparent or Opaque depending on the effect I am going for.
E'Tac is also another great brand for canvas, But like the WICKED line you have to reduce it and sometime add an extender to it to help with flow.
 
Oh, wow. I didn't think about that. Do you think it would be a good idea to just substitute buying a transparent set of paints with buying opaque paints and then adding the reducer then? Seems like a real money saver.

What all does the extender do?

And I'll go ahead and check out that Com-art.
 
The WICKED are opaques But the more reducer you add to them the more transparent it becomes, They designed this way to may it where an airbrush artist can use one paint to get different effects and textures, Layering the paint or different tones of the paint will add depth to the painting.
Hobby Lobby has a starter set of Com-art for about 25 bucks , But for me I had more tip drying with it than the WICKED, Almost every color gave me tip dry and it even drys in the cup faster making clean up a pain.

The extender from E'tac is designed to Extender dry time so you get less tip dry.(Think of extender in the form of what a auto enamel reduce with a slow dry time would be) But with all waterbase paint you will get tip dry.
Also a homemade brew of reducer that has proven to work with all most all waterbase paint is 1 part alcohol 3 parts water(bottle is fine) and 1 to 3 drops Glycerin. I use 3 drops on an 16 Oz bottle of mixture.
To much Glycerin will get you a fish eye effect.
 
Do you think it would be a good idea to just substitute buying a transparent set of paints with buying opaque paints and then adding the reducer then? Seems like a real money saver.

You are better off buying transparents and you can make these opaque by adding a bit of opaque white or black/dark blue. Dru Blair calls this colour buffering, other call it 'capping' your colours. Be careful with adding darker colours as this can produce brown or muddy results. Better off using the darkest transparent and adding the smallest amount of white.
This would be a basic set, you can also add different coloured opaques to change colours and give the same capping effect.

To explain how buffering/capping works, when you spray transparents you can go from a very light tone to the darkest it produces with the more coats you apply. If you want to 'cap' that colour to a certain tone (below maximum) you add a bit of opaque white then it doesn't matter how many coats you apply the colour is 'capped' to that level.
Adding just the smallest ampitn of opaque paint removes the transparency so it all depends on what you want. Some use only opaques which gives you total control of your colours, some build up their tones using transparents and some use both by laying down the opaques then changing the tone where required with a little transparent to 'wash' over areas for example.

What all does the extender do?

Extenders are usually the natural clear base for the coloured paints, you add these to 'extend' your colour, basically it just makes more but thins out the pigment per volume without reducing viscosity.
With transparents it makes them even more transparent, with opaques it does the same but will never be a true transparent.

Reducers or thinners thin the paint making it less viscious, you can thin paint to make it more transparent but you are breking down the chemicals that help it bond the more you add, hence the need for extenders.

I use and sell E'tac so if you have any questions at all feel free to ask and I can help you with any specific attributes of this paint system..

@Mr.Micron
I think you have the E'tac Condition-Air and Extend-Air mixed up, the Extend-Air is the base for the Private Stock line and the Condition-Air is the additive to help with flow and tip dry etc. It contains Glycerin also and from all accounts can be used with other water based paints as well ;) Only takes a 1-2 drops per oz bottled water to make a suitable thinner.

Cheers,
Mick.
 
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@Mr.Micron
I think you have the E'tac Condition-Air and Extend-Air mixed up, the Extend-Air is the base for the Private Stock line and the Condition-Air is the additive to help with flow and tip dry etc. It contains Glycerin also and from all accounts can be used with other water based paints as well ;) Only takes a 1-2 drops per oz bottled water to make a suitable thinner.

Cheers,
Mick.

I think you right , But it has been a while sine I used that stuff. Waiting on the price to drop some on the Trident for us in the USA.
 
Yes, I'd like to try the Trident for comparison, they seem to have a huge range of 'custom' finishes and paints for larger areas and base coats, a lot like Auto Air does. The E'tac range seems limited by comparison but they provide all you need to produce the same effects, you just need to mix them yourself. Some say this is biggest benifit of their paint system - full control - but if you just want it off the shelf they have a limited range by comparison.

Let us know how it goes when you get some :)

Mick.
 
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